Sami Miro's International Vision.

• Author: BRONIKOWSKI, LYNN

DENVER ENGINEER'S CAREER HAS SEEN THE WORLD COME TO COLORADO

Sami A. Miro looks across the booming Denver landscape and sees his mark everywhere -- Denver International Airport, Denver Central Library, Colorado Ocean Journey.

Twenty years ago Miro founded S.A. Miro Inc., an engineering firm that took off with the 1980s oil boom, weathered the late '80s oil bust and in May marks its 20th anniversary with an open house at Miro's newly-renovated Denver Tech Center offices.

S.A. Miro's engineering feats have put its signature on projects from the trademark DIA tent roof to Colorado Ocean Journey's display tanks and its atrium's circular configuration.

"From an architectural standpoint, I like the library project the best," said Miro. "But for the experience, the pressures and the challenges, I like the Ocean Journey project. That is the only aquarium in the world that has nothing below the concrete slab -- everything is supported by structural concrete."

It's the kind of project that S.A. Miro's 75 staffers have long prepared for.

"In 1980 I started as a one-man office in Tamarac Square," said Miro, who holds a University of Colorado engineering degree. "I was so naive then I had no idea there was going to be a construction boom in Denver."

But the boom came and, ready or not, Miro was there -- establishing his engineering credentials on the 10-story Cherry Creek National Bank, the 13-story Stanford Corporate Center in Dallas and the 19-story Mountain Towers office building in Glendale.

"My first job was the Cherry Creek National Bank and the retail around it," said Miro. "At the time we were a high-risk, start-up company.

But just as quickly as the 1980s boom took off, the construction industry tumbled. "We weren't prepared for that," said Miro.

Miro reacted by diversifying into such areas as revamping the U.S. Air Force Academy's infrastructure and acting as an engineering expert for Dow Chemical Co. litigation.

"We were able to maintain the constant growth of the firm," said Miro. "My idea was to operate a dynamic, non-stagnant firm that changes annually."

Once Denver voted to build a new airport, Miro saw "the future," he said. "I wanted Denver to be an international city and saw DIA as the key."

Miro grew...